Hi guys,

To say I haven't updated in a while is an understatement! Hopefully I'm back on track now, though. I love reading your reviews- I will try and reply more now! As always constructive criticism is welcome.

Hermione x

It was strange for Albus to have Lily at school. The "juniors", as they were know, joined the main school for meals, but otherwise stayed in two ridiculously small tents by the lake. The insides, however, had an undetectable extension charm on, and each tent was ten times bigger than Albus' house indoors. Albus had been inside both tents; the girl's tent, to see Lily, Molly and Roxanne, and the boy's tent where his dad and Hugo were staying. In the tents, there was a small room for each student, a huge common room (there were around 100 students in each tent), a room and study for a teacher, and an owlery.

The commotion over Rose had died down by February. The war still went on, but at the haven of Hogwarts, one could hardly notice that it was happening at all. The biggest shock was when the first death of the war was announced- Tania Pinkelton. Albus didn't recognise the name, but apparently her daughter, Maria, was a junior who was good friends with Lily. Maria's Dad and younger brothers had disappeared after the attack, and it was unclear where she would go next. For now, though, she stayed at the camp, practicing spells with renewed vigour.

"Everyone says that Mimi's family is being targeted because she's distantly related to Voldemort, but that's not true," Lily told Albus. "Her Uncle turned bad in the second wizarding war, and killed her Grandparents on her mum's side. That was just after her mum and dad married, and they ran away to a village near Moscow and changed their names. That's why they're having so much trouble finding relations to Maria. I have no idea how the anti-Deatheaters found poor Tania- they really need to find a better term for them. Has no one thought of a snappier name than 'anti-Deatheaters'?"

"Dad was saying something about the 'depello omne malum', or 'Dom' for short," said Albus spraying toast crumbs all over Rose, who wiped them from her face, disgusted. It was the Saturday before Valentine's Day. Albus, Rose, Scorpius, Lily and Hugo were all sitting at the Slytherin table. There was a juniors table but Lily and Hugo generally sat with Rose and Albus at either the Slytherin or Ravenclaw table. As a result of the influx of new students, the hall was usually rather cramped, but was mostly empty today since a lot of the older students were on a special Valentine's trip to Hogsmeade, including, much to their amusement, James. "I think it mean 'Removing all the evil' or something."

"That makes sense," said Lily looking at ceiling, which was a clear, bright blue. "Anyway, all the business with the Pinkeltons has made us juniors realise that this camp is more than just learning to make pretty sparks come out of special magic stick. It's about being able to defend yourself if some comes for you, which there's every possibility they will."

Rose was looking at Lily oddly. "What?" asked Lily defensively when she spotted her.

"Nothing. Just wondering when you got so grown up," said Rose. Lily smiled, surprised but proud.

"Don't swell her head too much or the triplets will think it's a dragon egg and put it in the fire," Albus joked. On Saturdays, they had got into the habit of visiting Hagrid, Olympe and the triplets, who were quickly getting bigger and more destructive. Albus didn't know if they just had bad eyesight, or they actually enjoyed causing people pain, but they often seemed to mistake people for other things. Hermione had drew blood last week when she had mistaken Albus' hand for a bath toy and started to chew on it.

"Talking of them, we'd better get going. It's nearly nine," said Scorpius, checking his watch.

"Lils, wanna check if Mimi wants to come? She looks as if she could do with a bit of distracting," asked Rose, suddenly. Maria was sitting alone at the end of the juniors table, looking rather sorry for herself- not that anyone could blame her.

"Good idea. She's been avoiding everyone- maybe something like this is just what she needs." As Lily ran over to the tearful Maria, Rose turned to Albus and Scorpius.

"Hey, you two. Don't scare her off."

"She's a girl, not a puppy, Rose" groaned Albus.

"A girl, who, if I must remind you, was probably orphaned a couple of days ago, is in a foreign country, you're three years older than and probably at least half a foot taller. My point is, poor Mimi doesn't need any more frightening."

"Ok, Ok! I get it! I'll be on my best behaviour. Cross my heart," Albus sighed, drawing a cross on his chest with his finger. He nudged Scorpius, who promptly did the same thing. At that moment, Lily arrived back, dragging Maria by the hand.

"Are we ready? Come on, I need to introduce Mimi to the triplets!"

Despite it still being February, the day was warm and the first yellow daffodils were smiling at the sun. They ran all the way downhill to Hagrid's house, only to be greeted by an astonishing sight. Hagrid was having work done on his cabin. It extended off both sides, and rose up an extra storey. Hagrid and Olympe were crouching close to the ground and talking to a smartly dressed house elf, who was showing them a giant plan of the building. Harry, Ron and Hermione were in baby grows and making handprints in a bucket of setting concrete.

"You didn't tell us about this, Hagrid," cried Rose, happily, bending over the plans to inspect them. Hugo, who knew many of the house elves from Aunty Hermione's work, went over and greeted a few young ones sitting in the pumpkin patch called Fluppy and Holcher, who promptly smothered him with offers of food and help. Hugo, however, decided that he would rather play, and they ran over to a tree and started making a den out of long sticks.

Albus leaned over Rose's shoulder and peered at the plans. It consisted of two U shaped floors, with rooms for Harry, Ron and Hermione upstairs, and a master bedroom, a bathroom and a hall/living area on the ground floor. "I wanted to make sure that they had their own space when they grow up," said Hagrid, beaming. "Olympe and I have our space, too, which is good. It's just- wow, it's massive, isn't it?" Up next to Hagrid, the house didn't look that large at all, but compared to the hut they had visited last week, it was much more spacious.

From behind them, there was a large clunk and three wails. Ron, it would seem, had got his hand stuck in the bucket of concrete, and in his attempt to get free, had swung his hand around and, in the process, knocked out Hermione and left an angry, red mark to size of a golf ball on Harry's forehead.

Having freed the solid lump of concrete from its bucket, Ron was frantically spinning around, trying to remove it from his fist. Before he could do any more damage, Rose cried "Stupefy!" and he collapsed next to Hermione.

"Oh dear," sighed Rose. Olympe picked up a bawling Harry, and jiggled him up and down, reassuring him. "We'd better take them to Madam Oliver. Madam Hagrid, you can take Harry, and Hagrid, would you take Hermione? I'll take Ron." Ron was too heavy to pick up even without a large block of concrete on his hand, so Rose brought out her wand, and cast "Wingardium Leviosa" on him; Ron lifted an inch off the ground but quickly collapsed back down.

"Can't you just cut it off?" asked Scorpius.

"Don't know the spell. Even if I did, it's too risky, I could hurt him. Scorpius, Albus, give me a hand. And- Lily?"

Lily nodded. "We learnt the other day. Oy! Hugo! Stop mucking around and help us out." Hugo ran over with Fluppy and Holcher, who were also eager to be useful. Behind Albus, a small voice piped up.

"I'll help too," murmured Mimi. With all their magic together, they were able to lift him, and they started off to the hospital wing.

"I'm sorry the visit wasn't as successful as we'd hoped," apologised Rose to Maria. "We don't take them to the hospital wing every time, I promise! Will you come again next week?"

"Of course!" said Maria, in surprise. "I love little kids. I remember when Alec and Rob-"but then she stopped and clammed up. Albus and Scorpius exchanged a look.

When they were up at the castle, Madam Oliver looked as if she was about to throw a fit. "THESE BABIES WERE ON A BUILDING SITE?" she bellowed. Lily put her hand over her ears in an attempt to block out the noise. "HOW DARE YOU ENDANGER THESE CHILDREN IN THIS WAY? IT'S DISGRACEFUL! At least they will be under my care for a few days. You two!" She pointed at Hagrid and Olympe. "Out! Make sure they have somewhere safe to come back to." They shuffled away, chastised. "You lot," she made a sweeping gesture to Rose, Scorpius, Albus, Lily, Hugo and the elves, "make yourself useful."

Albus and Scorpius were sat in Ron's cubicle, supervising the baby, who was now awake, as he dangled his concrete hand in a bathtub sized bucket full of dissolving solution ("Don't let your hands touch it, mind. It'll have the flesh off your fingers faster than blinking. I wouldn't usually do this, it's very risky, but he has giant blood. It won't harm him."). To their right was Lily, Hugo, Fluppy and Holcher, who were feeding Hermione potions to try to wake her up ("Never 'rennervate' someone who's been knocked out by hand. The shock would kill them"). To their left were Rose and Mimi. Harry was sat Mimi's knee; Mimi was rocking him back and forth and feeding him a large bottle of milk whilst Rose rubbed an ointment into his wound. The curtains were drawn around the cubicles.

"You're so good with him," said Rose quietly. Albus signalled to Scorpius to take care of Ron, and climbed over to the curtain between them.

"I used to look after Rob in the evenings when Mum was tired out from taking care of Alec."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Maria sighed. "Yes, I guess I should." Albus leaned closer to the curtain, trying to make sure he didn't knock it and give the game away. "Over Christmas, when the war had just started, we moved house. Mum and Dad changed their names and obliviated all their family, but still, you can never be too careful. Alec is- was only six months, so he couldn't tell the difference, but Rob was old enough to tell some of what was going on and he was very upset. We used to live in a wizarding village when we were in Russia, see, and he couldn't work why he wasn't allowed to ride his toy broomstick around London. He was also struggling with the concept of everyone speaking the same language- we always spoke English in Moscow and I never picked up any Russian or an accent. I had a piece of translating parchment which I got for my fifth birthday, so I never needed to anyway.

"Anyway, I was only told why I never visited Granny or played with my cousins when we moved. That's when I knew that I might be in danger from the war. I was never, ever allowed to tell anyone."

"And did you?"

"No! Never! I didn't breathe a word until they were taken. And then, when I was just settling into Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall called to me to her office. I knew there was something wrong. None of us juniors had ever been further into the castle than the great hall. And then, she told me that Mum had been hit by an Avada Kedavra, and Rob, Alec and Dad were God knows where. If they were still alive then, they won't be now, or at least in the right state of mind to know who I am.

"And now, I have no one. No family, and no friends in this country. I just don't understand why they had to take little Rob and Alec. I mean, it's not like they could tell them any information. I've never felt further from home." She burst into tears.

"What's happening?" mouthed Scorpius, who could hear Maria's gentle sobs.

"She's telling Rose about her family," Albus whispered back behind his hand.

"Mimi, you know my uncle Harry?"

"Yes?"

"Well, if you think about it, he was in a very similar situation to him. But Mimi, I wasn't going to tell you this yet, but-"

Albus heard a smack followed by a splash, and he was almost bounced off the bed as Scorpius flew off the floor onto the pillow. Ron had upturned the bucket of dissolving solution, and it was seeping across the floor, wearing away the tiles. Every one managed to get out of the way in time except Hugo, but he managed to take his sneakers off before the solution, which had almost removed the rubber soles of his shoes already, could do any damage to Hugo himself. The floor was wearing away, level by level, and took the bed with it (which was, mercifully, untouched. The dissolving solution didn't seem to react with the metal legs; perhaps this was why it could stay in the bucket.).

Ron sat gleefully on the rapidly sinking ground, clapping his newly freed hands and throwing fistfuls of soil everywhere.

Fortunately, Madam Oliver came over. "Oh, for goodness sake!" she cried, looking down at them. This wasn't hard, since the bed was now five feet below floor level. She flicked her wand to remove the potion, and offered her hands to Albus and Scorpius, tutting impatiently. After managing to pull them out (rather harder than necessary) she levitated Ron out of the hole, looking rather grubby and disappointed to no longer be surrounded by worms ("She could have done that with us," grumbled Scorpius, rubbing his arm mournfully). The others denied offers of a hand, ungracefully scrambling out instead. Madam Oliver levitated the beds, repaired the floor and replaced the very bemused triplets on their corresponding beds- bemused, that is, except for Hermione who lay, eagle spread, on top of the clean, white sheets, snoring loudly.

"I gave you one job," Madam Oliver muttered angrily. "Right! Palms up!" She walked along the line, inspecting our palms. "Right foot!" She continued patrolling, but stopped at Hugo's bare toes. In response to her raised eyebrows, Hugo pointed accusingly at the corroded scraps of fabric next to Hermione's bed. Madam Oliver repaired them with rolled eyes. When he climbed back into them with a squelch, she told him "Soothing cream. It'll disappear at eight tonight. Now, are the rest of you fine?" They nodded quickly. "Good. Then OUT! Go on! Get out of my hospital wing!" They all scuttled out as far as their legs would carry them, chased by cleaning equipment. The doors slammed behind them.

"Can I be the first to say: oops," said Albus apologetically.

"Yes, sorry about that," added Scorpius.

"Anyway, we have to head back to the Slytherin com. Essays to finish, you know, and all that."

"Which essays?" asked Rose, scathingly.

"Um… well… actually… I think it was… oh, no… yes, it was Charms."

"CHARMS! Albus, that's due this evening, at the latest!"

"Oh, um, right. On a completely unrelated note, could we come to the Ravenclaw tower?" Rose sighed. "She didn't say no," he said, turning to Scorpius.

"We'll just go and get our textbooks."

"No need. We have spares of everything in the tower," Rose sighed.

"Thanks, Rose," they chorused.

"You should be. Immy will be there, she'll help."

"Immy will be there? Ow!" Albus yelped, as Scorpius trod on his toe. "I mean, that's cool, I guess."

When they split up from the juniors and the elves in the main hall, Albus spotted Rose and Maria grinning at each other, and Maria gave Rose a thumbs up. Huh. Albus guessed Rose must have somehow managed to tell Maria whatever she hadn't been going to tell her.

After they had finished their essays, they returned to the dorm. Ben was there, and they revised for a transfiguration test.

"Um… ok, Ben. What three similar characteristics make it easier to transfigure object A into object B?" asked Scorpius, frowning at his notes.

"Shape, size and colour," recited Ben, ticking them off his fingers. "Hey, I just need the loo. I'll be back in a minute."

As Ben headed out to the corridor, Albus called out to him. "Hey, Ben! Where're you going?"

"Loo," said Ben, confused, pointing down the corridor.

"What about our bathroom?"

"But we're not allowed- oh yes, sorry, I'll go in there."

"I wonder what Rose was telling Maria in the Hospital Wing," pondered Albus aloud once Ben was out of earshot.

"I don't know," said Scorpius grumpily. "I didn't hear the conversation. I was single-handedly attempting to stop an enormous baby destroying the hospital wing, if you remember."

Albus hummed his agreement absent-mindedly, but in truth his mind was on other things.